NSW HSC maths paper too hard, claim teachers

Teachers in New South Wales are calling on the state's Board of Studies to simplify the examination paper for the 2-unit HSC maths course to stop an exodus of students from the course to the easiest level of maths.

Maths teachers say a number of students are abandoning the more complex maths subject in favour of general mathematics because of the increasingly difficult exam.

Students are said to be making the switch to ensure they perform better in the easier subject and thus receive a higher Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank.

The director of studies at Sydney's Shore school, David Whitehouse, says the 2-unit paper has a level of unpredictability which makes it more difficult than in years past.

"It's becoming more sophisticated and more difficult, quite tricky compared to papers from the 1980s and 1990s," said Mr Whitehouse, a maths teacher himself.

They've stepped up the level of difficulty of these papers and students have felt it very keenly and have been voting with their feet by changing to the more accessible general mathematics course.

David Whitehouse

"Since 2002 with the new HSC they've stepped up the level of difficulty of these papers.

"Students have felt it very keenly and have been voting with their feet by changing to the more accessible general mathematics course."

Board of Studies figures for this year show almost twice as many students opted to sit general mathematics (33, 026) compared to the more calculus-based 2-unit maths course (16, 868).

Mr Whitehouse says only 17 students at his school have chosen to undertake 2-unit maths next year.

"I heard in a neighbouring school that based on the feedback from [HSC] students leaving the examination hall for the 2-unit mathematics paper that the current Year 11 students, half of them opted to go to general immediately," he said.

Students vent frustrations online

HSC students took to the boredofstudies.org website to vent their frustration after this year's exam.

"I go to a school [with less than 250 people] with barely 10 people doing advanced and some of them cried afterwards," one user wrote.

"I found it too hard. I spent a lot of time on maths and in past papers I would get an average of 75-80. Today I think I'll be lucky if I passed," wrote another.

Mr Whitehouse says the Board of Studies needs to take action to ensure school-leavers are equipped with strong maths skills.

"My call is that the 2-unit paper from now on is made more accessible, easier, more predictable, in line with the sorts of papers that students across the state are getting in other subjects," Mr Whitehouse said.

But the headmistress of Sydney's SCEGGS Darlinghurst school for girls, Jenny Allum, says while she does worry about the decline in numbers of students sitting 2-unit mathematics, the reasons are complex.

She says teachers need to encourage academic resilience in young people.

"There have been such hard papers from time to time in the past and we shouldn't fuss unduly when one paper one year is a bit harder than the previous year's paper," Ms Allum, also a maths teacher, said.

"We need, as a society, to be encouraging the highest levels of intellectual rigour. We should value, as a society, academic pursuits at their hardest and most challenging."